Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan-Jun;46(2):37-64.
doi: 10.4054/demres.2022.46.2. Epub 2022 Jan 5.

Nativity differentials in first births in the United States: Patterns by race and ethnicity

Andrés F Castro Torres  1 , Emilio Alberto Parrado  2
Affiliations

Nativity differentials in first births in the United States: Patterns by race and ethnicity

Andrés F Castro Torres et al. Demogr Res. 2022 Jan-Jun.

Abstract

Background: While recent decades have seen gradual convergence in ethno-racial disparities in completed fertility in the United States, differences in the age pattern of first births remain. The role of nativity has not been fully understood.

Objective: This paper examines how first births vary by nativity, and how this variation contributes to more significant racial and ethnic differentials.

Methods: Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth (1997-2017), we jointly estimate the correlates of the timing of first births and childlessness. We assess differences between immigrants and US-born and child-migrant women across ethno-racial groups.

Results: The unique first-birth patterns among foreign-born women have a notable impact on Hispanics, reducing differences from Whites in the average age at first birth and contributing to more significant differentials in childlessness. The impact of immigrant women on White and Black first births is more modest in scope.

Contribution: Our work shows the importance of nativity for ethnic/racial disparities in the timing and quantum of fertility in the United States. We demonstrate how the migrant population is more determinant for Hispanic fertility patterns than for Black or White. We conclude by elaborating on the implications of these results for future research as the immigrant population in the United States becomes ethnically and racially more diverse.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:. Racial-ethnic differentials in first-birth hazard rates by age
Note: Results are obtained using sampling weights for pooled waves of the National Survey of Family Growth from 1995 to 2017 (n = 44,946 women). Data available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/index.htm.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:. Nativity differentials in first-birth hazard rates by age – White women
Note: Results are obtained using sampling weights for pooled waves of the National Survey of Family Growth from 1995 to 2017 (n = 24,848 women). Data available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/index.htm
Figure 3:
Figure 3:. Nativity differentials in first-birth hazard rates by age – Black women
Note: Results are obtained using sampling weights for pooled waves of the National Survey of Family Growth from 1995 to 2017 (n = 10,189 women). Data available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/index.htm
Figure 4:
Figure 4:. Nativity differentials in first-birth hazard rates by age – Hispanic women
Note: Results are obtained using sampling weights for pooled waves of the National Survey of Family Growth from 1995 to 2017 (n = 9,909 women). Data available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/index.htm
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Adserà A and Ferrer A (2014). Factors influencing the fertility choices of child immigrants in Canada. Population Studies 68(1): 65–79. doi:10.1080/00324728.2013.802007. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adserà A and Ferrer A (2015). Immigrants and demography. In: Chiswick B and Miller P (eds.). Handbook of the economics of international migration. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier: 315–374. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-53764-5.00007-4. - DOI
    1. Andersson G, Obucina O, and Scott K (2015). Marriage and divorce of immigrants and descendants of immigrants in Sweden. Demographic Research S18(2): 31–64. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2015.33.2. - DOI
    1. Bach RL (1981). Migration and fertility in Malaysia: A tale of two hypotheses. International Migration Review 15(3): 502–521. doi:10.1177/019791838101500303. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bagavos C (2019). On the multifaceted impact of migration on the fertility of receiving countries: Methodological insights and contemporary evidence for Europe, the United States, and Australia. Demographic Research 41(1): 1–36. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.1. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources